


Sparkle-Vision

by plotholes_ahead



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Found Family, Happy Ending, Injury Recovery, M/M, Somnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28522320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plotholes_ahead/pseuds/plotholes_ahead
Summary: There are no specific parameters for what comprises a family, especially not in the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl who has no memory of one.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto, Un'hee & Eli Vanto, Un'hee & Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo
Comments: 24
Kudos: 46





	Sparkle-Vision

**Author's Note:**

> This may be a tad random; I was largely inspired by the many Thrantodad works out right now. This is one of those fics that I'd probably tweak into nonexistence if I don’t just post. So here it is. : )
> 
> Warning: brief and mild battle sequence.

Senior Captain Eli’van’to bent low to press his lips against the girl’s warm forehead before retreating, draping the black-out cloth almost ceremoniously over her tear-streaked face as he pulled away. The vivid red glow of her eyes was already hidden, encased protectively beneath the delicate blue covering of her eyelids. To an outsider they appeared to offer shelter from the harsh reality of the external world. It was a ruse, of course. Sky-walkers were not granted the privilege of closing one’s eyes and ceasing to See. 

The digital chrono on the wall ticked over without a sound, drawing his attention from her as he quickly estimated how long she'd be under. The girl’s effort had taken an extensive toll. He’d gathered that immediately, but even as he carried her onto another ship, he’d refused to believe he’d seen the last of her heartwarming smiles or heard the last of her snarky one-liners. 

She’d be alright. She had to be. 

He threaded his fingers soothingly, just once so as not to disturb her, through the damp tendrils at the top of her head. What visions replayed unsolicited in her mind? Was she glimpsing rare, disjointed images of the future, or horrifying recollections of the previous battle and their all but destroyed warship? It’s wounded or deceased crew members? Did she remember being flung from her seat? 

Or was her mind calm; peaceful?

There was only so much Eli could do to protect the girl in the aftermath, so he gingerly tucked the heavy blanket tighter around her small frame. Even for a twelve-year-old and the eldest sky-walker on the _Vigilant,_ Un’hee was considered small for a navigator. 

The door behind him hissed open. 

“Captain,” a voice came from the entrance, a voice belonging to a being who did not enter but remained waiting patiently at the threshold. The voice was low and questioning, easily misinterpreted as timid, but Eli knew better. The tone held purpose, a sign of somber respect for the healing girl and a clear acknowledgment that although the other man commanded this ship, this space did not belong to him. 

This was the Senior Captain’s space; his temporary quarters. 

Lifting his weary eyes toward the door, Eli blinked away the hazy mist that had settled over them. The other’s glowing gaze was sharp and alert, as it always was. After almost two decades of familiarity, Eli knew he couldn’t blink away the ache fast enough for his mate not to notice. Their title remained unofficial, as it had for years, and could never be made legal — not whilst one of them donned the rank plaque of one of the Five. 

Admirals’ did not belong to a Family. 

His allegiance instead was to all Chiss, the entirety of the Ascendancy. No personal or familial ties governed his heart. As commander of the _Steadfast,_ Raw’nuru bore the honor of maintaining function and efficiency of an entire fleet. A task that had been recently enhanced tenfold as his flagship was currently tractor-towing and held responsibility for the safe delivery of Eli's battered vessel and remaining crew to HQ. 

Yet here he was; with Eli and Un’hee.

The former beckoned him into the room. 

“How is she?” Raw’nuru asked as he stepped into the simple, dimly lit quarters. Facilities existed for this treatment on every fleet warship, catering to the sensory deprivation needs somnia required, but Eli knew when she woke, Un’hee would not want to be anywhere he wasn’t. 

“Alive,” Eli replied quietly, voice lowering to an even more solemn tone. “Which is more than I can say for the others.” 

The Admiral laid a hand on his shoulder, a gesture the others would not find particularly intimate. But it was for Raw’nuru.

“A burden all commanders must face,” he reminded Eli with another trace of intimacy reserved only for him. His touch was deliberate, calming and coincided with how he carried himself in every other aspect of his life; steady, skilled and always leaving Eli wanting more. The hand on his shoulder flexed briefly before falling away as its owner relocated to the opposite side of the sleep couch without a word. 

Eli’s eyes followed him there and watched as he lowered himself into the same style chair he sat in now. 

How long had it been?

“I miss you.”

Present tense, as the sentiment was ongoing. Red eyes flicked to his and the left side of the other’s lips curved upwards. 

“Sixty-eight days,” the Chiss murmured, then straightened as if he hadn’t. “It is regrettable that our meeting again is under these circumstances.” 

Eli couldn’t bring himself to smile at the revelation that Raw’nuru did indeed keep track of the days they spent apart. It had been an ongoing dispute for years, an argument solely meant to tease the other into admission. 

But Eli could find no joy in it now. 

Thoughts of the battle - if you could call it that - had not subsided, becoming more disturbing with each passing minute, every hour he did not sleep or eat. 

_“Captain, orders from Naporar…”_

Irrefutable. Absolute. And after all was said and done, unsettling. His eyes landed on the other being in the room, the vulnerable, the cherished. Appearing fragile and helpless and — 

“It was not your fault,” the Chiss reassured him. “There was no way you could have known —”

“I know.”

He didn’t need a battle debriefing, didn’t need to hear that being fed false information had led to the destruction of his first command, and he certainly didn’t need pity from the Admiral. Huffing out a heavy sigh, he passed a palm wearily down the front of his face in frustration. It wasn’t pity; it was logic. Reason.

And exactly what he didn’t want to hear at this moment.

Raw’nuru knew him well enough not to press him. “The Council requested we make contact once everyone is secure.”

Eli fought the snide remark in his sour mood, swallowing it down so it didn’t tumble from his mouth. 

“You go,” he offered, instead. “I want to be here when she wakes up.”

He averted his gaze, knowing it could be hours before Un’hee opened her eyes, knowing that they might even reach Naporar before then. In his mind, not everyone was secure. After a moment of silence, and to his relief, Raw’nuru leaned back in his seat apparently content with waiting this out beside him. 

When it came time, when Un’hee’s foot twitched as if attempting to walk out of the trance, Eli reached for the small towel floating lazily in a basin of warm water. He wrung it out over the container before folding it thrice. 

Raw’nuru extended his arm out over the girl, hand open, palm up.

Eli hesitated. He’d grown so accustomed to doing it all alone. Day in and day out. 

His crew. 

Un’hee. 

His triumphs and his losses.

But his partner was here now, present in the ways that he could be. Eli placed the towel in Raw’nuru’s outstretched hand and removed the cloth covering from Un’hee’s face. The Admiral stood and gently laid the folded, warm rag across the young girl’s cool forehead. 

_Before_

Klaxons wailed overhead and from somewhere beyond, the dying vessel let out a desperate groan, duralloy plating peeling off into the black of space. Smoke collected in her airways, in her lungs, burning her eyes and throat. The thud of multiple airtight doors safely sealing off the bridge reverberated through the deck. She tried to ignore the moans of discomfort from the helmsman, the warrior closest to her that was still alive. She didn’t dare look around, requiring no visual confirmation to grasp the depth and severity of the damage and direness of their situation. 

Given no other choice, they could make it jump-by-jump, but navigating the Chaos in such a way was a tedious process. She was faster. Keeping her gaze on the still intact nav-controls, she crawled unsteadily across the panel flooring, squinting against the brightness of the flashing emergency lights. It was risky to attempt Third Sight, as there was no telling the condition of the rest of the ship and careening through space in a heap of smoking metal was never advised. There were no status boards and half the viewport had been shielded from view, and the Captain — 

Where was Eli? 

But it didn’t matter. She could save them all.

She pulled herself into the navigator’s seat with trembling arms, gripped the controls and bowed her head. Ignoring the drops of blood that landed on her fist, she exhaled and they were off.

Someone was calling her name; a voice she recognized amidst the others’ urgent shouts and commands. _He_ was calling her. Calling her name in the same way he did when she’d been outside too long, playing in the snow with her friends after she’d forgotten a jacket _again._ Calling her back like he did when she ventured too close to the cliff’s edge, away from danger, away from her more reckless tendencies. 

She remained conscious long enough to bring the _Vigilant_ back to space-normal. Then her weak grip slipped from the controls and before she collapsed, she caught sight of the massive flagship just outside the damaged viewport. 

_Present_

Un’hee’s eyes snapped open, her vision adjusting to the dim lighting of the makeshift treatment room. She jolted upright from where she lay flat on her back, seeming to take in everything at once without her mind actually registering a single image as she scanned the room. She could hear her own breathing, ragged and labored despite having just been laying motionless on the sleep couch. Yanking her arms free of the blanket that had bound them, she loosened the folds of the fabric on her legs. She recognized the tactile suppression wrap she’d taught Eli years ago, vaguely aware of that same person speaking to her now, telling her that she was alright and he was there. 

Light, sound, touch, even scent came rushing back to her. How this amount of sensory overload after exiting a trance didn’t send her spiraling into another overload spell was beyond her. Eventually her heart slowed its racing and she realized her vision was sharp, her head clear. There was no deep ache in her bones and the room wasn’t spinning. 

And then she saw him.

The man she’d hoped to see.

Before either man could stop her she’d clambered to her knees, ignoring the blanket as it pooled and bunched up around her. She managed to balance on the sleep couch without toppling over and when she reached out for him with both her arms he swooped her up in his, the warmth of his hand resting against her hair as his free arm draped protectively across her back. 

_I’ve got you._

Her breath hitched unexpectedly, and the tears that suddenly streaked down her cheeks felt like melting ice against the warmth that flared in her chest. She’d aimed for around his neck, but couldn’t reach with her short arms and his height, so she settled for throwing them around his broad shoulders, burying her face in the warmth of his white uniform. She’d seen him show affection to Eli before but she hadn’t expected the same openness to extend to her, and certainly hadn’t expected it to be expressed so naturally.

“You came,” she muttered into the soft fabric, wrinkling it where she held on tight. 

She heard his low chuckle at the same time she felt his body shake with gentle laughter. Pulling away to frown curiously up at him, she sniffled, wondering why he thought that was funny. Was her faith in him amusing?

_“You_ found _me,”_ he corrected gently.

She smirked, wiping hastily at her cheeks. Technically, she’d found the _Steadfast’s_ sky-walker, but she’d let the Admiral think what he wanted, even if he was wrong. He was here now, and that was all that mattered.

And then Eli was there; examining the healing cut near her eyebrow, the scratch on her shoulder. He tucked a strand of blue-black hair behind her ear, his worry lines smoothing out more and more with each reassurance that she was indeed alright. She noted that he’d recently gained more of those worry lines — especially after his last promotion — but his eyes were still kind, and the other’s spine was just as straight. She’d known these two first, after Ar’alani. From the beginning. Life with them in it just made sense. 

Over the years there was much that Un’hee had grown to understand; about the military, about _them._ About why they pretended for everyone else, but not for her. It was because she _saw_ them. She _knew_ them. And they welcomed her into their private world. She knew their greatest sacrifices were not made on the bridge of a warship, but rather in every subdued reunion that should have been more than a simple nod. In every modest goodbye that if the worst were to happen, could be their last. She didn’t think that was fair; that they were forced to steal what little moments they could between battles and briefings. 

What she understood more viscerally, was the level of comfort and safety that existed nowhere else in the galaxy for her but here. There was warmth, and relief, and a sense of belonging that Un’hee had, at one point, thought she’d lost forever. Deep down lay a fear that she’d never truly belong, but that fear disappeared inside the welcoming embrace of the only family she’d ever known. 

She understood that when Raw’nuru’s hand found Eli’s elbow and gently squeezed, they were communicating. Perhaps in their own language. It wasn’t forbidden — what lay between them — but it wasn’t spoken of. 

Just like how Eli would bring her to his quarters instead of the navigator’s ready room after an overload spell. They never talked about that, either. 

Seeing his face now, she knew she had some explaining to do. Navigators’ weren’t permitted to take the ship’s controls without being asked. Her Senior Captain wasn’t thrilled with her, but she’d done what needed to be done. The same as any other warrior would do. She’d tell him that if he argued with her, but there was one thing she’d already decided she’d keep to herself. Un’hee had seen this reunion before she’d even reached the controls on the fiery bridge of the _Vigilant,_ and she’d known who would inevitably find them on the other side. 

Placing one hand on Eli’s shoulder and stretching up to place the other on the Admiral’s larger one, she smiled up at both of them, her heart swelling, and feeling for the first time in a long time like she’d made it home. Sparkle-vision was painful and disorienting, but it was a small price to pay for the sight of her family together once again.  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading <3


End file.
